Apparently this image of Jesus with tears streaming down his cheeks appeared in a window somewhere and remained for a couple hours before fading away.
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Who gets pulled over for driving a bumper car on a public street?

I guess it's called "jowling," but what it is is a person (or animal in some cases) shaking their head in a manner that causes their facial skin to stretch and flap, and having a photo snapped during the shake.

It's harder to describe than to just look. So take a peek at http://www.jowlers.com for some examples. There are some pretty funny shots. I especially like the "Best Hair Jowl" award on this guy who seems to illustrate the definition of a stoner:

this "Pet Jowl" award of a dog who looks like he was just hit by a train:

and this "Crazy Intense Jowl" award of a guy with exceptional timing on Splash Mountain at Disneyland:


I don't know how many of the photos on that site are accidental, as I'd guess most all were strictly intentional. Not a groundbreaking site but definitely worth a chuckle.

It allows you to predate your emails and automatically mark them read or unread in the recipient's mailbox. They just keep getting better and better over at Google.

Apparently you can use it an unlimited number of times every time you send an email, a maximum of ten times. Of course all the other gmail-wannabes will probably be following closely behind with their own, lackluster ripoffs, but here is the original.

Read more about it here: http://yuarel.com/gmail_custom_time

It's a small "experimental" project I put a little work into. It's available just for some simple fun, if you want a little privacy, or you want to link someone to a page with a very long, complex address but you also want a meaningful URL to pass along.

E.g., instead of giving someone a long, sloppy, meaningless URL like:
  •  http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?storeId=10051&langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100095394
and instead of creating a shorter URL, which is just as meaningless, with a service like tinyurl:
  •  http://tinyurl.com/39mz3o
you can create a clean, short URL that actually means something:
  •  http://yuarel.com/home_depot/Heavy-Duty-Shelving

If you head over to yuarel.com you can create your own personalized web addresses that link to anywhere else on the web that you want.

For example, here's my very first Yuarel URL:
http://www.yuarel.com/video/Teh-Cutest-Adorable-Kitty-Evar!!!

So, please, start using it as much as possible and tell a friend. Better yet you can tell two friends, then they'll tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends, and so on. Spread the word! And if you have any ideas how to help popularize it, I'm all ears.

[update]
I added the ability to masquerade so instead of a simple redirection the real URL's contents will be displayed at your fake URL.

As I mentioned in my last post about my Sudoku game, I was working on this GoMoku game a couple of years ago. It has decent AI for single-player games, but the best feature is the network play ability including chat. This allows you and a friend to play against each other over a LAN or the Internet. (One player first "listens for clients" then the other can connect to the first one's IP address.) A third person can also connect to observe the game.

Here are a couple of screenshots:
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There are a couple of minor bugs mainly involving the network capabilities, but it's definitely very functionally kickass imho.

Give it a try and let me know what you think! Just download NetGoMoku.zip then unzip the game anywhere and start playing!

I was just reminded of a Sudoku game I was working on a couple of years ago as a fun project during my last semester in school. It's what I'd like to think is a pretty decent Sudoku game for the PC. (Sorry Mac users.)




There are over 4.2 billion puzzle possibilities numbered from 1 on up so you can try the same one multiple times if you'd like. You can just click the "random" button to let the computer select a random puzzle number for you.

There are five difficulty possibilities: easy, medium, hard, extreme, insane. I doubt anyone would be able to solve on insane.

Once you start a game a timer starts so you can track how long it's taking you to win (or lose). You can pause the game while playing, but if you do the puzzle will be hidden so you can't cheat.

You can enter up to 6 possible/placeholder values into a cell when you're unsure which it might be. To decide on a single one, just enter it by itself and hit the enter key. You can also use the arrow keys to move around from cell to cell.

Every five moves you can hit the "Progress" button which will tell you how many of your entries are incorrect, if any. If you're desperate for some help you can use the "Hint" button to allow the computer to randomly fill in a blank cell with the correct value, but doing so will add a 1 minute penalty to your time.

If you give up you can click "Solve It" to allow the computer to fill in the puzzle with all the correct values. Or you can use "End Game" to just quit where you are.

If you're in the middle of a game and just close the game, when you reopen it, it will pick up where you left off, so you can continue as if you never left.

There's also a statistics window that shows the history of all games you've played, including puzzle number, play time, and win/loss.

I'd love it if any of you Sudoku fanatics would give my game a shot and tell me what you think. No one except me has ever played it before, and the last time was 2 years ago.

Download: Rommel's Sudoku and just unzip it anywhere.

From Technology Review:

A viral view: Researchers at Yale University have genetically engineered a virus (green) that specifically attacks brain tumors in mice (red). The virus kills the primary tumor masses (B) and migrating tumor cells (E), while leaving healthy tissue intact.
Credit: Van den Pol/Yale University

This year, more than 21,000 people will be diagnosed with some form of brain cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. While benign forms are relatively easy to treat, malignant tumors require a combination of surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Even then, tumor cells may remain deeply lodged, replicating and spreading quickly through healthy brain tissue.

Now researchers at Yale University have found that a virus that's in the same family as rabies effectively kills an aggressive form of human brain cancer in mice. Using time-lapse laser imaging, the team watched vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) rapidly home in on brain tumors, selectively killing cancerous cells in its path, while leaving healthy tissue intact. What's more, Anthony Van den Pol, lead researcher and professor of neurosurgery and neurobiology at Yale, says that VSV is able to self-replicate and produce secondary lines of defense.

"A metastasizing tumor is fairly mobile, and a surgeon's knife can't get out all of the cells," says Van den Pol. "A virus might be able to do that, because as a virus kills a tumor cell, it could also replicate, and you could end up with a therapy that's self-amplifying."

In the past few years, scientists have looked to viruses as potential allies in fighting cancer. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic are engineering the measles virus to combat multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. And while various groups have seen limited results after injecting herpes and polio-related viruses directly into brain tumors in mice, Van den Pol wanted to find a more effective cancer-killing strain.

His search for a virus candidate began six years ago, when he and his colleagues tested the effect of different viruses on brain tumors in culture. Repeatedly, VSV came out "at the top of the heap." The team grew the virus through many generations, isolating strains that infected cancer cells quickly while having a slow effect on healthy cells. The researchers recently ran the most effective strain through a number of tests in live mice, and they've published their results in a recent issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

In its experiment, the team transplanted glioblastoma--the most common and aggressive form of human brain cancer--into the brains of mice. Prior to transplantation, researchers genetically engineered the tumor cells to express a red marker, which, once inside the brain, would show up in laser microscopy scans. Similarly, Van den Pol inserted a green marker in VSV cells and injected the virus intravenously through the tail. Within a few days, researchers observed that the green virus found its way to the brain and selectively infiltrated red tumor masses and individual tumor cells, while avoiding normal cells. Van den Pol says that as the virus infects tumors, cancerous cells start to turn green, swelling up until they eventually burst.

Wow. I just found the site http://bayimg.com by the people who brought you The Pirate Bay. It allows anyone to anonymously, simply, and freely host photos in a matter of seconds. So if you want to embed an image in a Sift Talk or blog post and need it online somewhere to do so, you can use that service.

That's pretty awesome. Sure, there are lots of other free image hosting services out there, but here's one that's extremely simple to use and doesn't even require that you create an account.

Just thought I'd share.

Two scientists from the College of Optical Sciences at the University of Arizona have successfully created mankind's first dynamic holographic display.


This initial breakthrough displays an updatable, monochromatic 3D image on a 4"-by-4" plate of glass, but is still an enormous achievement. It allows multiple viewers to view an electronically displayed three-dimensional image with a unique perspective from varying vantage points without the need for any special eyewear. This is very well the first step toward 3D motion pictures in a single flat display. Instead of attempting here to describe the specific details of the technology, read a lengthy explanation at the first of the links listed below.

Here's a video of the two researchers who developed the technology describing and demonstrating it in action (which I also submitted to the Sift).
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Just thought I'd share with you this great site I stumbled across some time ago. I check in on it every once in a while. For anyone who's even a little bit of a history buff, you'll find it very interesting.

Essentially it's just filled with lots and lots of usually random, personal vintage photographs take from even well over a century ago. It really gives you an interesting perspective on what life was like in years gone by.

Below are three images from their Civil War photo listing.

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A rather fascinating experiment that was started over half a century ago by geneticists in Siberia (at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics in Novosibirsk) has yielded some truly awe-inspiring results, including what can be considered indisputable proof of evolution.

The experiment accomplished in foxes what Mother Nature took thousands of years to do with wolves. It began with wild foxes that were captured and kept in captivity. Not surprisingly, most of them were very aggressive toward all humans. The experimenters selected only those which exhibited the least aggression and bred them.

This is essentially how the study continued for generation after generation of breeding over several decades. The foxes were never given much contact with any humans except for brief studies. After selecting 45,000 foxes over 35 generations, some amazing observations were made.

The foxes were not only more tame showing little to no aggression toward humans, the obvious intent of the study, but several physical changes started to happen: coats were no longer camouflaged, but had lots of different colors and even started having patterns in their fur; straight, pointy ears became floppy; legs became shorter; tails were no longer straight and long, but short and curly.

This is clearly reminiscent of the way wolves evolved into such a vast plethora of breeds that vary so greatly from one another, except this evolution occurred in only a few decades rather than the assumed several millennia it took to change wolves into dogs.

Here is a 3 minute clip from NOVA about the experiment (which has been submitted to the Sift here):
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Don't know how many Sifters are fans of stage theater or musicals, but one stage musical Charms and I have seen twice is Mamma Mia, the show based around and featuring the music of Abba. It's actually a pretty entertaining show no matter how ashamed you are to admit how much you enjoy Abba songs.

This summer they are releasing a film version of the show starring Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, and the chick who played Lily Kane on Veronica Mars (an excellent show that you've probably never seen). Looks like it's going to be a big hit if even just the people who enjoyed the stage show attend. Here's the trailer...

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Whoa...

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January 22, 2008 -- Actor Heath Ledger was found dead today in his Broome Street apartment, apparently from a drug overdose.

Ledger, 28, was well known for his role in "Brokeback Mountain," and he stars in the upcoming "The Dark Knight" Batman movie as the Joker.

He split last year from wife, Michelle Williams, with whom he has a daughter, Matilda.

His apartment was strewn with sleeping pills and it was unclear if it was an intentional or accidental death.

His housekeeper tried to wake Ledger up for a massage appointment and found him unresponsive at 3:20 p.m.

She then called paramedics at 3:26 p.m. and father of one was pronounced dead at 3:35 p.m.

Ledger's early career as an actor was marked by small roles in several independent features in his home country of Australia.

He broke onto the international movie scene in 1999 with his turn as the brooding high-school heart-throb who captures Julia Stiles' attention in "10 Things I Hate About You." After starring roles in "The Patriot," "A Knight's Tale," and "The Brothers Grimm," Ledger earned critical acclaim with his poignant performance as a gay cattle rancher in director Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain," for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

In 2007, he appeared in the independent film "I'm Not There," as one of many incarnations of Bob Dylan. He recently wrapped filming on 'The Dark Knight,' the sequel to 'Batman Begins,' in which he plays the villainous Joker. His most recent role was in director Terry Gilliam's 'The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,' which is listed as still "in production" on imdb.com.

Ledger's love life earned him as many headlines as his acting career. He has been romantically linked to such A-list starlets as Naomi Watts and Heather Graham. He has a daughter, Matilda Rose, with actress Michelle Williams. The couple, praised for their down-to-earth lifestyle in Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens, announced their split earlier this year.

Just wondering out loud how many fans of Wuxia are on the Sift. If you're not familiar with what it is, Wuxia is a genre of epic Chinese stories usually set hundreds or thousands of years ago featuring lots of honorable heroes and rotten villains usually doing a lot of traveling and martial arts battles in the course of working through whatever path fate has laid in their laps.

They are often based on very old, lengthy stories that are created as once-run television series. They are honestly really addictive and just plain old fascinating.



For me it's difficult to be able to watch many because they aren't usually offered with English subtitles or dubbing, but one that is available in the US on DVD is Return of Condor Heroes (ROCH) written in 1959 by Jinyong who has written several Wuxia novels. Like several other Wuxia novels, ROCH was written and published one "chapter" at a time in a Chinese newspaper. (Readers clamored every week in anticipation for each subsequent installment.) ROCH is the second in a three part series of stories that are all interrelated over multiple generations. The most recent series filming of ROCH (titled simply "Condor Heroes" in the US release) was the eighth production and filmed in 2006. ROCH is an amazing, beautiful story that spans several decades.



The sixth iteration of part one in the series, Legend of Condor Heroes (LOCH) is finally at the end of this month finishing its filming, which started in 2006. (One of the stars was in a near fatal car accident and once he recovered the other star was committed to another show.) It's scheduled to start airing in China later this year, and I'm just counting the seconds until it's released on DVD.

In LOCH the story begins with two blood brothers whose wives just gave birth to sons and are made blood brothers. Immediately afterward, the babies are separated. One of them is taken and raised by an evil Mongolian prince, while the other is raised by a group of "weirdos." A whole lot happens over many years as they both grow up. ROCH starts with the evil brother's baby as a young boy and follows him as he grows up with Dragon Girl. Because of the direct connection from LOCH to ROCH, it's most desireable to see LOCH first, but unfortunately they are obviously creating the latest LOCH series a couple years after ROCH. It's still okay to see ROCH, though.

If you are interested in getting an idea of the story of LOCH the four part movie series called The Brave Archer might be worth a look, but I'd much rather see the full-length TV series as the movies summarize and cut out a ton.

The next DVD set I'm looking forward to in the mean time is the third production of Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils from 2003 also written by Jinyong and starring Crystal Liu Yifei who stars as Dragon Girl in ROCH 2006.

Anyone else have any idea what I'm ranting about or am I all alone here?